Embodiments relate to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a refrigerator in which torsion of a rail member guiding a movement of a storage box is prevented to stably insert or withdraw the storage box.
In general, a refrigerator is equipment for storing goods at a lower temperature. The refrigerator is configured to store foods in a freezing or refrigerating state according to the foods to be stored therein.
The inside of the refrigerator is refrigerated by cold air continuously produced by heat exchange with refrigerant. The refrigerant circulates in the refrigerator while undergoing a continuous refrigeration cycle of compression, condensation, expansion, and evaporation.
Thus, the cold air flowing inside the refrigerator is uniformly distributed into the refrigerator by convection, thereby allowing foods in the refrigerator to be stored at a desired temperature.
With the tendency of large-scaled and multifunctional refrigerators according to a variety of user preferences and changes in eating patterns, various types of refrigerators are being released.
Such a refrigerator is classified into three types according to relative position between a refrigerator compartment and a freezer compartment. In a first type, the freezer compartment is disposed above the refrigerator compartment. In a second type, the freezer compartment is disposed under the refrigerator compartment. In a third type, the freezer compartment and the refrigerator compartment are adjacently disposed with respect to each other at the left and right sides.
Although a bottom freezer type in which a freezer compartment is disposed under a refrigerator compartment will be described as an example in an embodiment, the present disclosure is not limited thereto but can be applied to various products.
In the bottom freezer type, a withdrawable storage box is provided in the freezer compartment of a refrigerator. The storage box is coupled to a freezer compartment door. The storage box is withdrawn when the freezer compartment door opens.
A guide rail guiding insertion and withdrawal of the storage box is provided on both sides of the storage box. A portion of the guide rail, i.e., a rear end of the guide rail is fixed to a lateral surface of the freezer compartment, the other portion of the guide rail, i.e., a front end of the guide rail is withdrawn in stages.
However, the related art refrigerator as described above has a limitation as mentioned in the following sections.
When the storage box is withdrawn, a force acting in a downward direction is applied to the storage box due to a load of stored goods. In this case, one side of the rail supporting the storage box is torsioned with respect to the other side of the rail.
That is, since the rear end of the rail is fixed to the lateral surface of the freezer compartment, the rear end of the rail is slightly torsioned. On the other hand, the withdrawn front end of the rail is relatively sharply torsioned.
Therefore, when the storage box is repeatedly inserted and withdrawn, or when the storage box is maintained in a withdrawn state for a long time, the rail is plastic-deformed to cause malfunction.
In addition, when the freezer compartment does not completely close due to breakdown of the rail, the refrigerator cannot perform its normal function.